Improving your ability to read in English fast and accurately requires a lot of work, and if the materials you read donít interest you, most probably your English learning experience is becoming a nightmare and will not prove too effective.

It is not necessary to read boring materials to get good at reading in English, in fact it is counterproductive. Once you know the basics of the English language, you are free to choose among a wide array of reading materials and different methods of presentation.

Here are 5 ways to practice your English reading comprehension, which in addition to being effective and dynamic, are lots of fun:

1. Play word games
Today you can find all kinds of crossword and word game puzzles to amuse native and ESL speakers of all ages. These games will improve your vocabulary, sharpen your mind, and are a great way to have fun and pass the time.

Consider playing Scrabble and doing word searches, these can be of great help to train your mind to think in English.

2. Take a speed reading course
If word games are not your thing, consider taking a speed-reading course.

In this course you will learn how to pick the key words out of a paragraph to understand the message without having to read every word; thus, you must have, at least, an intermediate knowledge of English to be able to recognize and separate nouns and verbs.

3. Take notes on matters of interest to you
When you read a book about a topic you like, take notes. You can copy parts of the text word by word or you can try to write something in your own words.

As you write, you will have the chance to think in English, to think about the sentence structure, and to see how ideas are expressed; as a result, you will learn to talk about the topic in a more natural way.

4. Choose challenging materials
You must regularly establish new personal goals when learning English in order to progress and get better, just as you do when you exercise.

Letís say you can already understand a 100 page childrenís book, then it is time for you to try a 200-page book or one directed towards your age group.

No matter the topics that interest you, some books will be easier to understand than others; every time you chose the ones that are more challenging, you will be gaining mastery at understanding what you read in English.

5. Read materials from many different sources and authors
The number of websites out there gives you a good idea of the wide range of English writing styles that exist. You will most definitely discover how flexible the English language is and in which ways people feel more comfortable communicating.

If you are an expert in a certain topic in your native language, use that expertise to read websites in English that focus on similar topics.

In the same way, read books by different authors that talk about the same topics and try to understand the differences in writing styles.

After you learn the basics of the English language, only practice and time will make you proficient. It is crucial that, as a complement to your ESL class , you read about things that interest you in as many different forms as possible, and it is imperative that you have fun in the process.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. Theyíll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (donít forget to mention our ESL blog as the original source).

Rachel Clarkson
Rachel Clarkson is an English teacher at LCI English ESL Programs and blogger at the ESL Blog._________________LCI offers the best ESL classes through experienced teachers and high quality programs in Denver, Colorado. Check out great ESL resources and articles at www.englishlci.com/blog

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 4:33 pm Post subject: seem to be not a good suggestion for beginging learners

In the forum, we see many useful tips for English-learning, including the reading suggestions. However, few begininger could get the ideas well through this website due to they are still afraid of or tired with chuck of materials on the site. I mean, it seems not to be easy to readable for ESL beginners, and it is like a board on which teachers chat about their experience. Maybe, the forum shall encourage more ESL learners to show their difficulties on the board.

Hi, I agree the five way to learning english, I remember when I was little I was study in cram school, the teacher is an english,he use two or three english children books for a class in one semester ,sometimes we will play a game a crossword game, if the class still have five or ten minutes the teacher will paly cartoon video for us every class all the kids are wating a chance for video it's really funny, every class the teacher will ask all the studens to talk it's like a traing, and now I am a adult now, I upgrade the method , when I read this topic I want to share my english cram school memory, thank you.

After I watching the topic, I think learning English is not difficult for me. I usually use learning English magazine to improve my English reading. And I use Elllo website to improve my English listening. Then sometimes I write diary in English on my blog. In order to improve my English reading. As you can see, these are my learning English ways.

I think reading English newspaper and English magazing can improve English reading. When you read English newspaper, you don't understang what mean the words. You can use the dictinary to fine the word meang so that you can increasing your vocabulary.

I think ready English books can make me to get better at English ready. And English books include English newspaper, magazine and children books. If you think English newspaper is too hard to you, then you can try children books. In the beginning, you can choose the children books, because itís easy to read. After soon, you can read English newspaper.